AFTERSHOCK - Part 4.
She grabbed his hand and as the rescue transport approached over the trees, the ramp at the back opened and a rope fell from it. Aiden did not stop to think, he grabbed it and secured the rope first around himself then he grabbed hold of her secured the rope around her waist too and looked up. He saw a person leaning down at them and when Aiden gave a thumbs up, moments later the transport stared gradually ascending, and someone pulled the rope towards the ramp.
Within a few terrifying moments, they were on the transport, which sped up towards the stratosphere but it did not stop there. Someone seated Aiden next to the girl, and he finally got a moment to find his bearings. At first, he thought he was hallucinating. A sudden flash and extreme turbulent shaking of the transport did not help. What he saw was a mushroom cloud rising in the area where he was moments before.
He stared in disbelief. "What. In. The. Fuck," was all he managed to say.
They were observing what seemed to be a ring coming out along the ground, which was actually spherical, rising to escaping transport. The pilot was trying to keep the craft steady. Aiden was oblivious to all the beeping warning sounds coming from the cockpit. The ascending cloud reminded him of a pebble dropped in a still pond. It was white on the outside and purplish black towards the interior with a fiery red core, which just kept boiling up. Fires raged around the core of the blast and engulfed everything and anything that was in the radius of several tens of kilometres. The sudden realisation dawned on him. His whole unit was wiped out. There is no way anyone could have survived the blast. He slumped on the bench and looked at the girl with fatality in his eyes.
"You knew. You fucking knew," he whispered and without looking at him she nodded silently.
He looked around and the interior of the transport reminded him of an APC but somehow far more sophisticated. The cockpit was located at the front of the transport. Then he focused on the face of the man who pushed him onto the bench. He was trying not to freak out and pull his weapon on him. The insanity he was thrust into was just getting crazier.
She was closely observing Aiden, "What is that?" he asked as he pointed with the barrel of his rifle in a non-threatening way towards the strange man.
"That is my friend, Sappheiros," she replied as she put her hand on his, pushing his gun slowly down, "and he is a Myoari."
Aiden stared at the girl. "He is what?"
"He is not of this world. He comes from Yagils Prime," she calmly answered.
"Are you telling me;" he looked back at the man as he spoke with the shocking tremble in his voice, "That he is a mother-fucking alien?"
She nodded in agreement. "Yes, that is what I am saying, without the mother-fucking part. I’ll explain later."
"Fuck me sideways," Aiden exclaimed and straightened in his seat and then he noticed that they are reaching space.
"Why did you bring him along?" the man asked.
"What else was I supposed to do, not to mention, he saved my life," she replied as she pointed at Aiden and started shivering from the cold and the man she was talking to wrapped her in a blanket.
"What did he say?" Aiden asked curiously, still trying to wrap his head around what was happening.
"He says, hi." She replied even voiced.
With the corner of his eye, he caught bright flickering lights bursting through the small, glass windows into the vast white-dotted darkness of space. He was completely gaped at the sight. What looked to him to be the bridge stood tall above the rest of the ship’s body. He could make out gun turrets on the sides, on the top and below the ship’s hull. Huge propulsion was clear at the rear and what appeared to be, the ship also had manoeuvring thrusters all along its hull. He thought about one of his favourite movies, Starship Troopers and then he got it. The design reminded him of that movie.
“Fuck. How big is this thing?” Aiden voiced his question in bewilderment to nobody in particular as he was trying to keep his composure at what was happening and he felt as if he ended up in a twilight zone.
“It is 3324 m wide and 12342 m long and at the highest where the bridge is, it reaches 4213 m,” the girl replied with pride. “It is C.G.F. Elysium the biggest, most advanced battleship in intergalactic planetary confederacy. In short, IPC.”
“Flight ops, this is troop transport 405 requesting approach to docking bay 12.” The pilot called the ship’s flight controller in a monotone voice.
Immediately equally monotone reply came. “You are cleared to dock at bay 12. Be advised, star fighters are departing bay 14.”
“Cleared for docking in bay 12. Fighters departing bay 14,” the pilot repeated as per the clearance protocol.
Strangely enough, the brief scene was comforting for Aiden. Some things never changed he thought, be that a pilot of a Blackhawk requesting permission to land or a pilot of this transport requesting to dock on a spaceship. The closer they got, the more daunting the ship looked. He knew that there is nothing he can do at the moment. He will just go with the flow and see what happens. At least they did not take his weapons from him, for now, and that told him they do not perceive him as a threat. If they were to disarm him, he’d know he is definitely screwed.
The feeling of ending in some alternate, surreal universe and he might be in a coma in a hospital bed and all this is playing out in his mind, since the last things he was watching when he was on leave were Sci-Fi movies and series thus his mind to keep him from going insane retracted into the movie world was not leaving him. The twilight zone sensation was very strongly lingering within him.
The transport entered the ship through a force-field, and as it landed gently on the platform, Sappheiro opened the ramp and pointed at Aiden as he spoke to her. “Aria, tell him to keep his mouth shut and to behave. We need to sort this out because the Captain will not be happy about this.”
She looked at Aiden and spoke somewhat urgently. “Do not say or do anything, let Sappheiro talk.”
“Aria, is that your name?” he asked, “Sure, I’ll keep shtum. Not like I can do or say anything, anyway. I can’t understand a goddamn thing you people are saying.”
“You will soon enough. Now follow me.” She turned as she replied and walked after Sappheiro.
Aiden followed her and as soon as he stepped off the ramp he almost bumped into Aria. The hangar was like any other hangar, crew scurrying about, maintenance guys tinkering around the transports. It was noisy and busy with one major difference, many of the crew scurrying around were not human.
“Lieutenant Ghelfi, what in the hell were you thinking?!” bellowing voice came closer, Aria and Sappheiro stiffened at attention and without realising, he did too.
Aria was about to speak. “I wasn’t asking you, Ensign. Happy to have you back, when your communicator went we thought we’d lost you,” then he turned his attention at the Lieutenant, “I specifically forbade a rescue mission. You fucking knew that the nuclear blast was about to go off according to historical records and our goddamn readings, which you of all people took!” then he noticed Aiden, “Who the hell is that and why is he on my ship!?”
Aiden saluted. “Sergeant Major MacLeoud at your service, 7th scout regiment of Euro Division.”
The man had a chiselled face with a scar running down his cheek, he was evaluating Aiden with his stern look and Aiden recognised the expression in his black eyes. Aiden has seen it many times and the story behind such eyes was one of determination, perseverance, no bullshit attitude and above all, the man had people die under his command. His lean muscular features were well hidden under the turned-out navy-blue uniform. He could not have over 50 Aiden thought and he demanded respect just with his presence. He was a commander, who earned it by being a leader. One could recognise the type in the way they spoke, held themselves, how they treated those under their command.
“You were supposed to be dead by now along with everyone else caught in that blast. Why aren’t you and relax, at ease.” Aiden did as he was told, followed by Aria and Sappheiro, “I said the sergeant, not you two,” he calmly said, “Speak man, I don’t have all day.”
Aiden briefly recalled what has happened and the Captain nodded without a word in acceptance of his explanation and turned to walk away. “Lieutenant, I need you on the bridge if you stopped fucking about. Ensign, take care of our guest, we have spare quarters available in the trooper’s deck. He is now your responsibility until I figure out what to do with him and you owe him at least a dinner for saving your arse.”
“What in the hell is going on? Tell me I am not completely crazy.” Aiden looked at Aria looking for answers.
“You are not crazy. This is very real. All of it. According to history, you should be dead given the fact that you were down there when the blast went off. Having you here, well it means that history stays unchanged and we must keep it that way.” Aria explained as she led the way to trooper’s deck.
“Are you telling me this ship, that you are from the future?” he asked as he was observing crew-members other than humans and trying not to freak out.
Aria stopped, pivoted and faced Aiden and looked straight at him with her large, green almond shaped eyes. “Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. I can only imagine what shock this must be for you but trust me, you are not dreaming. I promise I will explain everything. Let’s get you settled first ok,” she smiled softly and gently put her hand on his arm.
“How far from the future?" he persistently asked.
Aria sighed. "We come from the year 5123."
"Shit." Aiden whispered in shock. "All right, show me the bunk. Then how about some dinner. There must be some canteen in this place and then you start talking.”
“Deal, I will show you to your quarters. I will get some fresh clothes a shower, I come and pick you up and we can have some dinner. To be honest, I am starving,” she replied and Aiden observed her full lips blossom into a wonderful smile with cute dimples that made her beautiful face radiant.
To be continued,
